Ready for a different type of cooking project? Then you need to try making fire roasted peppers!

Each year we grow all kinds of different peppers. We have several types of sweet bell peppers, both hot and sweet banana peppers, along with jalapeno, Serrano, and cayenne. And of course there are one or two (or maybe more) mystery pepper plants that were brought home from the Mingos Nursery & Garden Center because they were unhappy or tag-less. Peppers are very easy to grow in the hot summers of Texas because pepper plants love hot soil. That means we get a lot of peppers each summer. Each summer I stuff them, sautée them, pickle them, hot sauce them, and add them to everything I can think of.

When there are so many peppers sitting on the kitchen island I can’t make dinner (because they won’t fit in the refrigerator for all the cucumbers), I need a good way to use them up before they go bad. One of my favorite ways to use up a lot of peppers quickly is to make fire roasted peppers. Fire roasting brings out a wonderful flavor in the peppers as well as adding a little smokiness.

Roasting peppers on the stove.

All you need is a flame, some peppers, tongs, and a paper bag. For these pictures I used the flame on my gas cook top. A gas grill or even a camp stove would also work… of course do those outside.

To fire roast a pepper, turn on the flame and drop a pepper or two into the fire. You will probably want to turn your hood fan on high and maybe even open a window; this can get a little smoky.

Your goal is to blister and blacken the peppers’ skin. You do not need to turn the skin into a dark grey ash as I have seen some people do. As the peppers blacken you will hear them popping a bit. Do not panic, the pepper is not going to explode. That is the sound the seeds make as they cook. It sounds a bit like popcorn popping.

Rubbing the skin off the pepper.

As each side of the pepper blackens, keep turning the peppers to let the flame reach all sides. Word of caution, don’t walk away during this process. Trust me.

Once a pepper is blackened, drop it into a paper bag and close the bag up. Keep adding peppers to the bag until they are all fire roasted. Let the peppers cool in the bag with the top closed. This allows the peppers to steam and the skin to loosen.

Once cool, you will remove the blackened skin by rubbing the peppers with your fingers or a paper towel. If you roasted hot peppers you may want to wear gloves for this part. You also may want to keep a bowl of water handy to clean off your fingers. Try to resist the urge to wash off the peppers because that will wash off a lot of the smoky flavor.

Fire roasted peppers.

Once the skin is removed, cut the pepper in half lengthwise and carefully remove the veins and seeds.

Now what? There are a huge number of things you can do with these fire roasted pepper filets. Use them in salsa or in bruschetta. Add them to a salad or to top a pizza. They make a yummy soup too.

A great way to use these roasted peppers is to marinate them. The marinated peppers are so flavorful! We use them on sandwiches, toss them in salads and pasta, or just eat them as is. Here is the recipe I use but feel free to try your own. Below, there is a tool that will let you print out the recipe cleanly.